Thursday, May 29, 2014

In Re Christopher R. (Cal. Ct. App. - April 28, 2014)

Mother and Baby test positive for cocaine at birth.  Baby also tests positive for amphetamine and methamphetamine.

Mother admits that she used cocaine when she was 16 -- seven years previously -- but claims to have stopped a year later.  As for how she (and the Baby) nonetheless test positive, Mother says that during the eighth month of her pregnancy, she picked up a small container of cocaine for someone else, and then tasted a tiny bit of it to make sure it was cocaine.  (Let's leave entirely to one side the wisdom of this purported explanation.)  Baby was born three days later.

Baby weighed a little over five pounds at birth.  She needed IV feeding and oxygen, and was in the hospital for 25 days.

You can figure out what happens.